Chatham County golf course rehabilitation a model for Savannah

As Savannah looks to rehabilitate the city-owned Bacon Park Golf Course that has fallen into disrepair, Chatham County's Henderson Golf Club is doing swingingly well.

Membership at the public golf course off Ga. 204 near Interstate 95 is up more than 200 percent, and $37,000 in revenue and lease payments have been poured into the county's coffers over the past two years, according to Gallea Golf Properties LLP.

The firm took over management of the struggling 18-hole course in December 2011.

Chris Gallea, owner and general manager of Gallea Golf Properties, recently told county commissioners his company has kept its pledge to correct the misfortunes of the course, which had about 26 members in November 2011 before the management change.

Now, he said, membership totals 100 and 650 more rounds of golf were played in 2013 compared to the previous year.

Gallea Golf Properties, which also operates Crosswinds Golf Club, is projecting 10 percent revenue growth for the county in 2014.

"Over the last couple of years we've been hard at work trying to rebuild this golf course," Gallea told commissioners on Dec. 6.

Before Gallea's company was handed control of the golf club, Henderson was in a state of disarray. The course's grass was brown and weed-infested, sand traps barely contained sand, algae covered the property's waters, wooden bridges had rotted and golfers were forced to navigate around cracked cart paths.

"If you were out there two years ago, you would have seen a place that was no better than a goat pasture," said Gallea.

Conditions at the golf club were so bad county officials at one time considered placing a padlock on its gates.

"It honestly was a headache for this county for quite a few years," said Commissioner Dean Kicklighter, who remembers receiving constant phone complaints about the facility that his district once encompassed.

Financially, Henderson's books were equally in shambles.

Club Group Limited of Savannah, which had managed to club since 2007, couldn't afford to make its monthly payments even after the commission reduced them from $4,000 to $1,000. The company was reportedly preparing to turn its back on the entire affair when county officials approached Gallea about the job.

Officials were impressed with what he'd done with Crosswinds Golf Club, an 18-hole course whose clubhouse features banquet space and a restaurant near the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, and sweetened the deal by offering a percentage of gross revenue and coverage of repair costs.

On Dec. 2, 2011, commissioners voted to reassign Henderson's lease to Gallea Golf Properties. The county then spent tens of thousands of dollars in upgrade expenses.

"We were in desperate straits," recalled County Manager Russ Abolt. "This truly is the phoenix rising out of the ashes."

Commissioner James Holmes, who said he has played golf a couple of times at Henderson, also praised Gallea's work.

In addition, the club hosts weekly sessions for First Tee of Savannah, a nonprofit that teaches golf to youth, said Gallea.

Henderson's success comes as the Savannah City Council unanimously voted last month to award O.C. Welch Golf Properties Inc. a long-term management contract for the 27-hole Bacon Park Golf Course, which has seen better days.

Still, more work needs to be done to fully return Henderson to tip-top condition, Gallea said.

He told commissioners that between 20 and 26 of the course's more than 100 bunkers are strewn with weeds and need to be dug out and refilled with sand at a cost of $2,000 per bunker, a price that includes labor costs.

Another major complaint from members, Gallea said, has to do with what he described as the deterioration of the club's golf cart paths and bridges.

"We maintain them and then, when we can, we put money into them," Gallea said. "(But) we're in the business to make money. We operate golf courses and we operate them effectively."